FUTURE OF ROYAL MAIL

That this House recognises the importance of an efficient, publicly-owned Royal Mail business; welcomes the news that the Royal Mail made an increased profit of £255 million in the nine months to Christmas 2008; further welcomes the Royal Mail's prediction that it will nearly double the level of profit it achieved in the last financial year and that all its businesses are in profit for the first time in almost 20 years; notes with great concern proposals for the part-privatisation of Royal Mail, with Dutch mail company TNT, the front-runner to take a stake in the company, despite the fact that the company unveiled a 37 per cent. fall in profits; can see no reason why there is a requirement to sell a portion of the Royal Mail to the private sector; and urges the Government to support a wholly publicly-owned Royal Mail business with a renegotiated access agreement ending the £100 million subsidy to private companies for the delivery of their mail with a six pence increase in the access agreement, giving Royal Mail an additional £300 million profit every year, which could be paid into the pension deficit, easing the burden on the taxpayer in addition to being used for new investments.